Steven Seagal

Seagal married Miyako Fujitani in 1974. He had two children from her; both of whom went on to become extremely popular in their fields. He left her in 1987.

While his divorce with Fujitani was still not finalised, he married Adrienne La Russa.

While he was married to La Russa, he fell in love with Kelly LeBrock and she became pregnant with his child. When this news spread his marriage with La Russa was annulled and he eventually married LeBrock in 1987. He has three children with LeBrock.

Steven Frederic Seagal was born on April 10, 1952 to Samuel Steven and Patricia in Lansing, Michigan. His mother was a medical technician and his father was a high school teacher. He is of Jewish-Irish ancestry.

The family shifted to Fullerton, where he studied at Buena Park High School in Buena Park.

He got a job as a dishwasher in a restaurant, ‘The Wagon Wheel’. Since he was extremely swift on his feet, the cook, who was a Japanese Shotokan karate expert, observed him and decided to give him some training on the basics of karate.

He then went on to learn aikido under Harry Kiyoshi Ishisaka in 1964. In his late teens, he moved to Japan with his father, who was visiting the country for military reasons and decided to remain in Japan permanently.

Soon enough, he earned a 7th dan degree and Shihan in aikido and became the first foreigner in Japan to operate an aikido dojo.

His first tete-a-tete with Hollywood was when he worked as a martial arts coordinator for the film, ‘The Challenge’, which released in 1982.

After becoming the head of ‘Tenshin Aikido’ in Osaka, he moved to the US in 1983, where he opened an aikido dojo in North Hollywood. The same year, he worked as a martial arts coordinator for the film ‘Never Say Never Again’.

In 1988, he was approached to write and coordinate the martial arts sequences for, ‘Above the Law’, directed by Andrew Davis. He was also cast in the film as ‘Nico Toscani’. Two years later, he was seen in the films, ‘Hard to Kill’ and ‘Marked for Death’.

The 1991 film, ‘Out for Justice’ along with the other two films, ‘Hard to Kill’ and ‘Marked for Death’, made him a national superstar.

However, he got his first proper breakthrough in the blockbuster hit, ‘Under Siege’ as Casey Ryback, in 1992. Two years later, he appeared in a mediocre film, ‘On Deadly Ground’, which he also directed.

He starred in ‘Under Siege’ in 1992, which is considered one of his most commercially successful films till date. The movie went on to collect $156,563,139 at the box office and spawned a popular sequel, ‘Under Siege 2: Dark Territory’. In 2001, the movie was seen in the list of ‘100 Years… 100 Thrills’.